A Reprise

It has been a good week.  I did a Vampyre Tarot reading last night that helped me re-focus on my own life and activities at a time when I was becoming obsessive-compulsive. The third card, in the Future position, was Eight of Skulls. This card spoke to the work I am doing for comps and gave me focus today as I worked through both the annotated bibliography and more readings.  The description of the card in Phantasmagoria  really spoke to me in how it mentioned not over-focusing on the bigger picture, but instead taking time with the details. I feel that's where I need to focus my energy with the readings for comps. Understanding the individual works.  My mind still skips ahead to the future quite a bit, while I'm doing the readings. I wonder if I should include this short story or that when I teach the literature course in the Spring. I start to imagine how I would teach it. Then, I wonder if I'll have more opportunities to teach literature courses, or any courses at...

I can't believe it, there's going to be a NaNoWriMo chapter in my immediate area for all of our little small towns. I'm so excited, I have to go to an event now, finally. I have written three wrimo novels -- the only novels I ever complete now will probably be through this challenge. If I finally go to an event I may meet the Other Unicorns. They may even live around me. My god, who knows??? I am so excited about what I'm writing this year. It is everything I am and everything I need to say right now. It's about my reading, my ideas, my spirit, and the way I've become this person now. I can't wait for November. I am still trying to decide if I'm going to put it online or not. Right now I'm saying yes, but not right away so I can have some breathing room, say what I need to say all the way without worrying about putting it out there. But I will be posting my daily word counts here. The NaNoWriMo site crashes or is really slow in November (when peop...

What does it mean to look not with the eyes but with the heart? I didn't really know what that meant. It's not as sappy as it sounds. I've been talking a lot about the astral plane without knowing what that really means, but I guess I read enough from Doreen Valiente and Dion Fortune to take my own definition. As above, so below, for every physical entity, there is a spiritual entity. Additionally, remembering past lives is achived through spiritual memory, not physical memory. For me, the world around me is my teacher. I can see myself, conflicts and challenges that come up, sometimes completely unexpectedly, exposing my vulnerabilities and unsoundness. I see it through my spiritual eyes, I see this map of my life like some kind of thermo-topographical map with red areas and blue areas, and I can figure out what I need to know by looking at the map. To an extent that makes tarot irrelevant, doesn't it? But sometimes I can't always see, and the tarot has so far ...

I have been dividing my time between The Fourth Turning  and Moon Magic . The Fourth Turning  is fascinating the way it talks about what is going on right now, even though it was written in 1997. So far everything it's predicted about the media and social attitudes has come to pass. The Millenial/Gen Y still has not come forth and expressed itself. According to the book, the "hero" generation doesn't do that until the time of the crisis itself. Until that time they don't have a collective identity. Last night I drew the 6 of cups. The 6 of cups is about nostalgia, childhood. This is the second time I've drawn a card like this querying for strength and what will help me get through. Moon Magic  continues to be a turning-point reading for me. I identify most with the author simply for creating a character like this and learning from her. I feel I have done this with Lady Hildegarde, and I reflected on her yesterday to see what she is "doing." I w...